As we announced in the first newsletter, one of the main objectives of the "Prep Squad" is to make the Augustana self study Tradition and Transformation available and accessible to the college community. We would like to demonstate to the Higher Learning Commission visiting team that the Augustana community is generally conversant with the content and claims made in the study. To that end, we are doing the following:

Three copies of the complete Self Study have been placed on one-day reserve in the library. The library will monitor demand and more copies will be made available if necessary.

A spiffy, seven-page Executive Summary (January 20, 2006) of the Augustana Self Study Tradition and Transformation was distributed to faculty at the most recent meetings of the Faculty Senate and the full faculty. It essentially summarizes the introductory and concluding chapters of the study and gives the feel and look of the final document.

Faculty are invited to attend either of two information sessions on Monday of winter finals week, February 20 (between scheduled exams) at 11 a.m. - noon and 2-3 p.m. in the College Center Board Room. Refreshments will be served.

Two information sessions with refreshments have been scheduled to inform administration and staff during the first week of spring term on Wednesday, March 8 in the College Center Loft at 10:30-11:30 a.m. and again at 1:30-2:30 p.m. to facilitate attendance.

Faculty will be asked to help reach students by distributing information and discussing the site visit (with the aid of a talking points outline we will provide) in their B- and C-period classes early in the first week of spring term.

A very short, "breezy" synopsis of the self study is under preparation and primarily intended for distribution to students.

Starting with this issue of the newsletter, we will present still another "quick and dirty" look at the self study in the form of a much-reduced version that aims to conserve to some degree the essential structure, content and language of each chapter. We will call it "Self Study Lite." The chapters will probably be packaged as follows: this issue #2 (Introduction), Issue #3 (Chapters 1 and 2) and Issue #3 (Chapters 3 and 4) and the last issue #5 (Chapter 5 and Conclusion).

A special thanks

We would like to acknowledge and thank Beth Nordby for her technical assistance, keen sense of style, and considerable patience, without which you would probably not be reading this newsletter.